My Design Weekends

I was horrified to return to the beautiful Southern Highlands this weekend to find every jewel coloured leaf had been stripped from the trees in the space of a week. Gale force winds during the week had wreaked havoc !!

There is not one leaf remaining on our gorgeous trees. We have the perfect autumn garden and usually have the pleasure of weeks on end of autumn colour....not after the week we have just had....freezing conditions and wind.

I do have some wonderful photos which I have longingly looked back over this weekend....so will share some I have taken over the last couple of weeks !!! I guess the only thing left to do is start raking, I will only have to do it once.

I am going to drip feed photos of our autumn as it seems to be much slower to progress this year. While there are pockets of wonderful autumn colour that seems in its peak.....other areas are barely starting. Our maples....the showcase of our garden....have barely started to turn. Luckily we already have so much other autumn colour to admire....particularly our beautiful smoke bush.

It seems such a shame to have inclement weather at this time of year because you really do want to be out in the garden admiring it all. I love finding a sunny spot to set up morning tea....the glow of the sun shining through the yellow and red leaves.....it reminds me of stained glass windows.

The house always looks amazing when you can pick branches of colourful autumn leaves to put in jugs. Colourful rosehips look equally as good.

With the nip in the air....although already some days are quite cold!!!.....work in the garden seems such a joy. Any excuse to be out with all the autumn leaves....even if it means hours of endless raking. It is exhilarating and fabulous exercise I tell myself year after year.

I am never alone out there though.....the families of kookaburras perched close by.....are always on the lookout for worms as you work your way through the leaves raking....raking. They are never afraid of you....and I find them quite a comfort.

On a less strenuous note, autumn heralds the arrival of our beautiful sasanqua camellias ..... the bushes so old they are enormous. I have bowls of them all through the house ......they don't last long but that doesn't worry me a bit .....there is an endless supply down in the garden.